Vacuuming Oriental and Area Rugs can add years of life to a beautiful rug. If you have pets and/or moderate in and out traffic on your rugs, vacuuming should be done at least once a week to reduce the dust and dirt buildup in your rugs. Dirt and grit can travel very quickly down into the pile of area rugs. Dirt particles have sharp edges and will break off pile fibers creating bare areas in a rug. Have you ever seen an old rug with bare areas worn down to the foundation? Bare areas expose the rug foundation. When the foundation breaks making a hole, the rug will start to unravel.

Repair costs can be avoided by vacuuming properly. For wool or silk rugs use a suction attachment without a beater bar touching the rug pile. Raise the wheels to raise the beater bar or turn it off if possible. Run the vacuum across the rug from side-to-side to avoid fringes. This keeps the fringe away from the front of the vacuum head where the suction pulls in the fringe causing damage.

At least twice a year, to help remove dirt that filtered down into the pile of your rugs, smaller rugs can be taken outside and shaken. Larger rugs are turned upside down and vacuumed with the beater bar on the back. The vibration of the beater bar shakes out loose dirt onto the floor. Flip the rug over, sweep dirt up from floor and vacuum the top of the rug again. If nothing has been shaken out onto the floor, you are doing an excellent job with your routine of vacuuming.

Some dirt and stains can be hard to remove at home. A professional oriental or area rug cleaner is your best resource.

Visit www.cristomar.com for more information for the care of your oriental or area rugs.

Do you smell a strange odor coming from your dining room rug? If you own a pet, the smell could be from urine accidents; so you need Pet Urine Odor Removal!

Pet accidents on your area and Oriental rugs need to be cleaned up as soon as you find them. Pet urine can damage the rug’s colors and fiber strength. Proper treatment can save damage.

Pet Urine Odor Removal – Tips

Cotton towels and clean water are the best to use for clean-up. If the urine is dried, or has an especially strong odor, make the solution with 50% white vinegar and 50% water. This will help dissolve the urine crystals that have locked onto the fiber of your rug. The last application should be with plain water.

From your spray bottle, cover affected areas heavily with the solution. Several applications may be needed to complete the Pet Urine Odor Removal. After every application, use cotton towels to blot up liquid. Blot to dry as much as possible. DO NOT RUB – it will fuzz the fibers and change the look of that area permanently. Bath towels can be used under and on top of the rug. Stand on towels to draw out liquid. Continue until you feel pet urine is removed. Dry quickly by lifting rug and adding air movement with a fan. Vacuum after the rug dries to lift pile.

Pet urine is warm and may have an acidic pH when it lands on your rug. This is the perfect medium to affect the dye colors. Urine can fade colors, can add a yellow color or cause the existing colors to bleed into each other. The longer urine stains stay in your rug the harder color problems can be to correct – or may not be able to be corrected.

Dried pet urine crystals can be harder to remove at home. A professional area rug cleaner who specializes in Pet Urine Odor Removal is your best resource.